Ringing up $180,000

continued

Williams has faith they'll hit their numbers. "Every year it's like this, and every year we get fearful, and every year God pulls us through. I do believe that when it's all over at 3 o'clock on December 24, if we're not there, we'll get there. Because people will find out we did not make our goal - and they're not going to want to see that, and they're going to write checks after Christmas and then we will make our goal. It's happened every time before and it's going to happen again.

"Why? Because people care about those out there who don't have food, who don't have a job, who don't have a home. They care because they know how close they are to being on the serving line themselves.

"And," Williams concludes, "every time there's been a recession, we have the best years - and the economy has gotten very bad this year."